The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour includes a stop in Portsmouth; as it has for most of its treks the past 19 years.

The event is held at The Music Hall as a fund-raiser for Goodwin Community Health in Somersworth Goodwin Community Health, says Community Relations Director Lara Willard. The festival is about fun, adventure, winter and presenting powder from around the world to avid New Hampshire fans.

This is a program of The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, the largest mountain festival in the world.

Goodwin Community Health employees, who have come to know those fans well, review and select from 30 or so works supplied by Banff. The committee is also given access to audience feedback.

"We try to come up with a mix of films the Seacoast audience will love," Willard says. "We try to pick a wide variety to fit people that want that heart-pounding rush, that want to get the adrenalin going. That's what the fans love."

Per usual, this year's local selection includes a variety of winter sports.

"We're in New Hampshire. This audience wants to see the powder from all around the world," Willard says. "We want a climbing and biking film and something water-based, a paddling film."

"We also love to throw in and show parts of the world that people rarely get a glimpse of, or a mountain culture you don't get to experience from everyday media," she adds. "We love showing off things people have never seen before."

"Split of a Second" is one of the more thrilling in the lineup this tour. It features wing-suit flying in which "pilots" don suits that allow them to glide through the air in flying-squirrel fashion.

"It's amazing to watch, to witness this thing," Willard says. "It's a rush!"

"35" is an award-winning film about a man who celebrates his 35th birthday by challenging himself to climb 35 routes as a gift to himself.

"His words are such a celebration of humanity and the human spirit," Willard says. "The words moved us. We wanted to share that."

Willard also was moved by "Keeper of the Mountain," a film about Elizabeth Hawley. Hawley traveled from the United States to Katmandu to work on a project chronicling Himalayan expeditions for the Himalayan Database for a few weeks, back in the 1960s. She never left.

"She's 90 and still there," Willard says. "She thought she'd be gone for a couple weeks. And now she's an integral part of Himalayan mountain culture and she has an amazing story to tell."

The evening ends with "Valhalla."

It's "probably a PG-17" that features naked people skiing, Willard says, laughing. "A lot of people will come out to see that one."

The group will announce the film's subject matter in the program, and again before screening, so those with children or who may find nudity offending, may leave beforehand.

"They're wearing nothing but a smile and ski hats," she says. "It's a kick to watch!"

The festival runs about two and a half hours; its films ranging in length from six to 50 minutes.

The evening's intermission features a special raffle.

"We have some phenomenal prizes," Willard says. "The grand prize is a stand-up paddleboard courtesy of Bill Downey from Portsmouth Kayak. He's been donating big prizes for about 15 years straight to promote the cause and the festival."

The cause, Goodwin Community Heath, supports thousands of families in the Seacoast annually "with everything from getting in front of a doctor or dentist to mental health professionals," Willard says. "We help them to remove many barriers to accessing healthy care. We're trying to make sure our services are always available to the most vulnerable people in our community."

As of a few days ago the event had sold out nearly two-thirds of The Music Hall seats, she says."Tickets are flying out the door. We almost always sell out at The Music Hall. So people should act quickly if they want to get into the festival."

"It's a great festival," Willard adds. "And a lot of these films — from my perspective — blur the line between athleticism and art."